Jaqueline

Karen knew that the ball was in her court, and Carl was waiting for an answer. The evening had been terrible; Kat had once again pulled out a bag of tricks or secrets to draw a wedge between Carl and Karen. Karen knew that her mother-in-law was jealous of her relationship with Carl. Even though they had been married three years, it was still new territory for Kat. Carl was Kat's only son and only child, even so, why did her //bother-in-law// find such pleasure in dampening their family joy? "No." "What did you say?" "No, I don't want to go to your old college reunion, Carl and no I don't want to meet your old sorority flame Jacqueline." "You can call it jealousy or bitterment, but I don't want to go. I never learned about this //fancy// reunion until your loud-mouth mother cared to spill the beans!" Carl could see from Karen's intense, narrowed brown eyes that she was not going to relent. And he could also read her pain. "Was meeting up with old college roommates and allowing himself to go through twisted emotions upon meeting Jacqueline worth it?" Carl had heard crazy stories about meeting old flames and the temptations that could occur. "All right Karen, we won't go." "Okay we won't go."

Karen and Carl shared a brief embrace and with a smile on both of their mouths, Carl whispered,"Don't let my mom (Kat) wear you down, Karen. Because you matter to me." And with that, they strode back into the dining room, hand in hand.